My Three Strategies for Surviving a Slump

I love working out. You know it, I know it, my friends know it, and my family knows it. It’s just part of who I am. Usually, I treat working out like brushing my teeth. I just…do it, 6 days a week, and am usually excited about it.

It’s very seldom that I ask myself what the flippin’ point is to all this working out. And I mean very seldom. However, every once in a blue moon, I’ll be in the middle of a workout and think, “Why am I doing this? Do I really need to work out like this?” And so starts the vicious cycle.

The answer to my question, is of course, “no.” Surprised? I could work out 3-4 times a week and be just fine and healthy. However, that’s not who I am. It’s become part of me to get 5 or 6 good heart-pumping, sweat-producing, endorphin-inducing work outs in a week, and 3-4 blood-pumping, muscle-swelling strength-training work outs a week. It’s one of the few things I am VERY passionate about.

But like I said, every once in a while, I get in a low mood, either because of something negative in my life, or let’s face it, hormones, and I doubt my reasons for exercising. The next question of course, is “how do I deal with these feelings??”

Step one is to honor them. Most of the time I get feeling like this, I’ll simply respect the feelings for a day or two, and will take a couple days off of working. I mean, this can happen in other aspects of life too. It’s called burn out. It’s just like taking a personal day or two at work. Usually, after a couple days off, I’m gearing to go, and feeling so weird for not working out, that I’m ready to do it again after those couple days. However, when this doesn’t work, I do:

Step two, which is to change it up. If I’ve been in a running phase or class phase, I’ll instead do some yoga, or maybe the elliptical. Sometimes too much of the same thing can lead to false feeling of sadness/stuck in a rut. You gotta switch it up every now and then. Usually, by option two, I’m out of my funk, and can go about my active lifestyle biiiddness. But on the rare occasion that I’m STILL in a funk, I move on to

Step three, which is do it anyway!! A little self-motivation never hurt anyone. I tell myself to just get over it. I’ll feel much better after I get through the workout. That exercise produces endorphins! And endorphins make people happy! So people who exercise are happy!! (Channeling Elle Woods much? Hehe)

In a nutshell, this is my three-step strategy for busting through a slump. Next time you’re feeling down and it’s affecting your workouts, give it a try, and let me know how it works out! (haha, no pun intended 😉

What are some ways you don’t let your less than stellar mood affect your work outs? Or if you can’t help it, then how do you get yourself out of a slump?